Berkeley Dining

Overview

The East Bay is one of the best places in the country to eat, but there's a lot of terrible food around campus, as is the case with most campuses. For information on locations listed below, or others, type the restaurant name in the search boxes at Yelp or Chowhound. The best way to get restaurant ideas is to frequent these sites and find those reviewers who have similar taste to you, or those who take the reviewing thing too seriously (like Brad).

Near campus

It's much more economical to bring a sandwich or two, but most of us are too disorganised to do that. Mostly we eat lunch on northside, where most of the food is adequate at best. Sometimes we go to southside, where there are some reasonably good places and some really bad ones. Occasionally we go downtown, where there are some wonderful places and some really bad ones. The hardcore food lovers among us may wander to the Gourmet Ghetto, where there are many wonderful places, at most of which we can't afford to eat.

Northside (Hearst and Euclid)

Top Dog, a Berkeley institution, is everybody's favorite libertarian hot dog stand. They have terrific toasted buns and a wide range of sausages, all meatier than Ayn Rand, for $2.75 a pop. It's part of the food court on Hearst, which is otherwise filled with Asian joints. Chianglai (Thai) and Aki's (Japanese) are reliable, while T.C. Garden (Chinese) has a cult following for its dirt-cheapness.

On Euclid, La Val's is a respectable budget pasta and pizza place. Did we mention it's licensed? It's right by La Burrita, who give you free chips with your burrito.

Stuffed Inn and the Hummingbird Cafe duel for the sandwich dollar. Hummingbird will fill your sandwich a little better (but get the Middle Eatern plate instead); Stuffed Inn has good soups available in combo deals.

Brewed Awakenings has decent coffee and better sweet snacks. (Coffee geeks tell me that Yali's on Oxford and Village Grounds on Shattuck are the places to go if you only drink royal grade stuff. And the Blue Bottle stand at the farmers' market must be experienced.)

Southside (Telegraph and Durant/Bancroft)

The food court on Durant, unfortunately known as the Asian Ghetto, has a slightly better average than the Hearst food court. Our picks are Thai Basil, painfully slow but with painfully good curries, and the decidedly non-Asian Gypsy's, an Italian place who do surprising good salads.

There's a House of Curries on Durant and a Naan N Curry on Telegraph. No one can tell the difference between these two chains, but they're the best cheap Indian food around and excellent vegetarian options. On the corner of Durant and Telegraph is Smart Alec's Intelligent Food, which would be as healthy as claimed if we didn't always end up eating too many of their fries.

Further down Telegraph is Mario's La Fiesta, a higher grade (yet still cheap) Mexican restaurant that Mario and Rosalinda have been running since the Fifties; sometimes you just need their menudo. It's next to Cafe Intermezzo, a pretty good soup and sandwich place.

On Bancroft, Caffe Strada has nearly decent coffee and excellent people-watching. The I-House Cafe has rubbish coffee and extraordinary people-watching.

Downtown (Shattuck)

Downtown's more of a walk but the food is better. Top picks are Pie in the Sky (NY-style pizza), Ryowa Ramen, Jayakarta (Indonesian, not for everyone) and C U Sushi.

Pizza

The Cheeseboard (Shattuck at Vine) makes one kind of pizza a day -- you don't get a choice. It's always vegetarian, and they prefer idiosyncratic toppings like eggplant and potato (potato!). They're only open five hours a day, and what little space there is inside is mostly filled by a jazz small group, so you'll probably have to sit outside on the median strip. Whatever. You will go back to the Cheeseboard again and again, because at $2.25 a slice, there's no better cheap food in Berkeley.

If you prefer meat, Pie in the Sky (Center at Shattuck) makes thin slices with good toppings. Other NY-style places are Gioia (Hopkins at McGee^?) and Arinell (Shattuck at Addison); both are somewhat controversial.

If you want beer with your pizza, Lanesplitter (several locations, loving selection of microbrews) and Jupiter (Shattuck at Allston, nitro stouts) are excellent choices.

Closer to Evans, La Val's (on Euclid) is better than Fat Slice (on Telegraph) is better than Blondie's (on Telegraph). It does get a lot worse than Blondie's, as some student seminars have proved.

For something different, Zachary's (College, near the Rockridge BART) deep dish pizza has won over ten zillion best pizza awards with their flavour-bomb tomatoes and operatic use of basil. Two slices of the spinach & mushroom might fill you up for days.

Topping all of these is Pizzaiolo (Telegraph at 51st), but that's a hard restaurant to get out of for less than $30.

Pizzas we haven't tried yet but want to: Nizza La Bella, Dopo.

Burgers

Downscale: The Red Onion (El Cerrito), Smokehouse (South Berkeley), In-N-Out (Pinole).

Upscale (places we're not afraid to have a medium-rare burger): Cafe Rouge (Fourth Street), 900 Grayson (West Berkeley). Have heard good things about Eccolo and Gregoire (only offered a couple of months a year).

Noodles

Ryowa Ramen (ask for the special noodles), Noodle Theory (fusion), O Chame (udon, more expensive). In Japantown in SF, Mifune.

Ethnic food

Chinese: Daimo (Cantonese, Pacific East Mall carpark in Richmond), Spices 3 (Taiwanese-Sichuan, Oakland Chinatown), Great China (Korean Chinese, Downtown Berkeley), Shanghai (Oakland Chinatown), China Village (Sichuan, Solano), Shan Dong (Oakland Chinatown).

Indian: Vik's (chaat, West Berkeley), House of Curries/Naan 'n' Curry (various locations), Mehak (buffet, West Berkeley). Chris likes Priya (buffet, West Berkeley).

Mexican: No entirely satisfactory options in the immediate area. There's Tacubaya (West Berkeley, yuppies), Picante (West Berkeley, screaming kids), Cactus (Rockridge, both yuppies and screaming kids), Mario's La Fiesta (Telegraph, hit/miss), Gordo's (Elmwood, just OK). Mike and Moorea strongly recommend El Huarache Azteca in Fruitvale, Oakland (slightly sketchy neighbourhood). Taqueria San Jose in the Mission in SF has the best al pastor tacos ever.

Thai: Ruen Pair (Albany), Andy and Cindy's at the Farmers' Market, Cha Am, Tuk Tuk Thai (mostly because it's open till 1 a.m.). The Berkeley Thai Temple is supposed to be good for Sunday brunch.

Korean: Pyung Chang Tofu House, Korean Kitchen

Middle Eastern: Holy Land (get the lemonade)

Indonesian: Jayakarta

Ethiopian: Cafe Colucci

A little expensive

Pizzaiolo is my (Brad's) favourite restaurant. The pizzas are the best in town, the fried dishes are even better, and they sometimes have a quite singular olive oil gelato.

Others: Dopo, Cafe Rouge, A Cote, Cesar, O Chame.

Really expensive

Chez Panisse is the birthplace of California cuisine and still the second-best restaurant in the country, at least according to Gourmet magazine. The fixed menu downstairs will set you back $70-110 a head if you don't drink; a la carte upstairs is slightly cheaper. Highest quality ingredients you'll find anywhere.

Places I'd try if I had the money: Oliveto, Eccolo, Jojo.

-- VinceVu - 11 Jan 2007 -- BradLuen - 14 Feb 2007 -- BradLuen - 22 Aug 2007